Never A Dull Moment
by EldarWannabe
Summary: Samwise and co. go to visit an old friend... A year in Gondor with appearances by Elladan, Elrohir, Legolas, Gimli, Eomer and the whole Gondor crowd.
1. Aragorn Recalls Jests Best Forgotten

Chapter 1: In Which Aragorn Recalls Jests Best Forgotten.  
  
Disclaimer: If I actually owned these character's, do you truly believe I would spend my time writing about them? A poor second to actually chasing them across the plains of Rohan and through the trees of Eryn Lasgalen, in my opinion. No, these character's and places are all property of Tolkien Estates, Tolkien Enterprises, and New Line Cinema. Lucky them.  
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"Faramir?"  
  
The Steward of Gondor looked up from the book he was reading, then leapt to his feet. "Yes, my lord?"  
  
Aragorn gestured for him to sit back down, "I was merely wondering if you knew the whereabouts of my son."  
  
"I believe the Lords Elladan and Elrohir took him to the gardens," Faramir answered, hesitantly putting down his book. "If you wish for me to assist you in finding him…"  
  
"No, no. I think I am capable of hunting down my own child, Faramir."  
  
"Yes, my lord," the Steward responded. Aragorn restrained his impulse to look around for the elf he had always associated with the word "lord". Elrond had left for the havens, and now his brothers were the lords of that particular haven. And Aragorn was king. Which could prove quite trying on occasion.   
  
"I would advise preparing for tonight soon," Aragorn cautioned, "and perhaps taking something from the kitchens to eat presently. Hobbits can prove to have the appetites of a men twice their height and thrice their girth."  
  
Faramir smiled from personal memories of Gondor's own little hobbit-knight, then appeared startled. "Already? But it is only…" his voice trailed off as he caught sight of the angle of the sun out of the window. Aragorn smiled, recognizing the love of a reader to his tales.  
  
"You have time yet," Aragorn reassured him, "enjoy the book." Then he turned and walked out of the door, a glance backwards showing Faramir as engrossed in the book as he was before.  
  
Aragorn hurried down the halls toward the Queen's Garden, slowing down automatically when he heard footsteps coming. Though no one crossed his path, he was to always appear as the king he never really felt he was.   
  
He finally burst out of the door into the garden. A quick glance revealed nothing, but that didn't deceive Aragorn. He was dealing with Elrohir as well as Elladan and if Elrohir felt like playing a joke, small details such as the apparent lack of hiding places in the garden wouldn't stop him.   
  
Aragorn slowly began to walk down the path as if he was merely enjoying the sun, but out of the corner of his eye he watched for the small details. He caught a glimpse of a blue and smiled. Maybe he would have Eldarion ready for tonight. He moved even slower and even more casually toward one of Arwen's favorite trees at the corner of the garden. Replanted after a delicate journey from Ithilien, it was perhaps the strongest tree in the garden.  
  
Aragorn began alighting the lower branches and climbing up to his brothers and his son with the grace of one raised in an elven home.  
  
"Estel! I thought you would never find us," Elrohir said, obviously delighted that he had.  
  
"When avoiding detection, never wear clothing distinguishable from your environment," Aragorn quoted, nodding his head toward Elladan's blue and silver outer tunic.   
  
"And all that time I thought you were ignoring me!" Elrohir said, mock surprise filling his voice.  
  
"When it comes to finding my son, I could recall your first close combat lesson with the rapier word-for-word if need be," Aragorn said, his eyes going to where Eldarion was enjoying pulling on Elladan's hair as Elladan tried to delicately remove it from the child's grip.  
  
"Oh do tell," Elrohir said "I can't seem to recall that lesson very well,"  
  
"It never happened, Elrohir. Glorfindel taught him the art of that particular weapon. You were hunting for the Yuletide feast." Elladan informed him, having successfully removed fully half of his hair from Eldarion's tight grip.  
  
"Surely I must have taught you something about the weapon!" Elrohir protested, turning back to Aragorn.   
  
"I do recall you informing me that if I couldn't use it properly, not to use it at all."  
  
"Then he came back a few years later and killed three wargs using nothing but a rapier and his bare hands." Elladan finished, pulling his hair into a hasty knot at the back of his neck, and twisted Eldarion around to face his brother making his hair a harder target. Eldarion giggled and proceeded to lean forward and reach for Elrohir.  
  
For a single second, he lost his balance and looked like he was about to fall. Aragorn and Elrohir both dove for him, but Elladan calmly picked him up and rebalanced him on the branch in a safer position, immediately in front of him.  
  
"Maybe we should take him down, carefully," Aragorn said worriedly.  
  
"I seem to recall a certain worried mother saying the same of her son the first time we took him up a tree," Elrohir remarked, even as he began his descent. Aragorn opened his mouth to protest, but Elrohir landed lightly on the grass and Elladan handed Eldarion down to his brother, jumping down next to him.  
  
"I would advise getting ready for the feast, King Elessar. I do not think your Queen would take kindly to seeing her King arriving in the feast attired in wrinkled clothes with leaves falling left and right from his person." Elladan said, then with a short bow and a wink, proceeded to take Eldarion up to the castle. Eldarion waved.  
  
"Abandoned by my own son," Aragorn muttered as he scrambled down the tree and began to race after his brothers.  
  
Right before they disappeared in the door, Elrohir turned around and yelled back a common phrase among the brothers. It annoyed Aragorn to no end and delighted his brothers, with their perfect, silky elven locks.  
  
"And Estel, do *something* about your hair!"  
  
A/N: *giggle* couldn't help myself. It's the one negative thing I've been able to find about Aragorn, and I can't let Thalia think she's got the perfect guy, can I? (Nope, I've got him. But he's currently somewhere in Ithilien, making arrangements for his and Faramir's absence. But he'll be here soon. Never fear.) And I felt the need to give Faramir a book. He seems to be the scholarly bookworm in all the young Boromir and Faramir stories, but in the post-war stories, it's never mentioned. So I gave him a book.   
  
Well, that was a nice, pointless chapter. Upon contemplation and an analysis of what I hope the next chapter (and rest of the story) will consist of, I realized that this will probably be the shortest, most pointless chapter of the story. Think of it as a prologue/introduction to the rest of the story 


	2. Of Hobbit Opinions, Elven Thoughts and t...

Chapter 2: Of Hobbit Opinions, Elven Thoughts and the Man in the Middle

Disclaimer: These character's and places are all property of Tolkien Estates, Tolkien Enterprises, and New Line Cinema. Not me. So there.

A/N: Just a friendly reminder that Frodo Baggins has left for the Havens as a Ringbearer quite a number of years before this story takes place. The Frodo mentioned in the following story (unless otherwise specified) is Frodo Gamgee, Samwise Gamgee's second child and first son. Frodo Gamgee was also referred to as "the gardener" which will come into play during this story.

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Rosie hurried down the corridor, the feeling of stone underneath her feet still strange and foreign to her. Personally she preferred the wooden floors of the Shire, but she could see a few advantages to stone. They were hard to think of when she first managed to climb down from the bed to hop across the floor to a carpet, of course, but things like that were bound to happen in a city of shoe-wearing folk. At least Elanor and Sam were enjoying themselves.

"Frodo!" Rosie called, "Frodo, where are you?"

She was hurrying down the hall leading to the Queen's Garden, knowing full well that if Frodo was missing that was where he would have headed. Sometimes she felt that his hands were as much in the dirt as his father's. 

Suddenly the doors opened, revealing the twin elven-lords coming through, one of them holding the young heir-prince of Gondor. They seemed to be laughing quietly to themselves over some jest. Rosie paused, unsure of what to do. They solved the problem by coming right over to her. The one not holding the child gave her a deep bow and the one who was gave her something between a bow and a deep nod. Rosie gave a quick curtsy back.

"We beg your pardon, Lady Rosie, but we must return this young prince to his mother to be made ready for his tonight's feast," the one holding Eladarion said.

Rosie opened her mouth, furiously trying to come up with an answer that would sound right and proper, and to her horror, found the hobbit in her speaking out. 

"Well I should say so! If you ask me, a young 'un such as him shouldn't even be awake at that hour! But if he must, best to be in his mother's arms. Males can never be expected to care for a child at an important time." Then, realizing who she was talking to, she tried to repair the damage, "Leastwise, Sam never could." Rosie felt herself blushing furiously. To make such a blunder in front of an elf-lord! Two of them, at that!

The one not holding the prince seemed to take her seriously. "We will be sure to present your opinions to the queen."

If anything, Rosie blushed harder. "No need to do that," she said hurriedly. "The queen's likely very busy and-"

The elf waved away her protests. "No, I insist," he said courteously, and with a quick bow, he and his brother turned and continued down the hall. 

After a moment, Rosie continued walking toward the garden, feeling the color slowly leaving her cheeks as she berated herself. 

.

"Acting that way to two elven-lords! What would Mother say if she saw me now? I've wrecked it for Elanor, no doubt. And Sam will be-"

Then she caught sight of the king hurrying down the hallway toward her, his hair looking as if it had been hastily pulled back, then half falling into disarray again. There were leaves clinging to his clothing.

He paused for a moment next to Rosie, panting slightly. "Where…?" He asked, his meaning clear. Rosie silently pointed down the hall after the two elves. He gave her a grateful look and hurried down the corridor after them.

Rosie once again continued down the hallway, shaking her head. She would never understand the world of the Big Folk.

Rosie walked out into the garden "Frodo! Frodo, lad, where are you?! You're not to appear before the whole court covered in the dirt of a garden, Queen's though it may be."

Frodo crawled out from under a bush he and his father had planted. "I was checking the roots, Mother. Have to make sure they set in the earth proper and-"

"And now you're covered in the earth that should be on the roots? Never mind, we need you to look more like a hobbit-lad and less like a bush by the time the feast starts. We just have to hope that Sam and Elanor are both ready or I don't know what we'll do!"

"Yes, Mother," Frodo said, recognizing when to be quiet and submissive and hope everything worked out for his mother. Rosie sighed.

"Well, come on then, we have to get those leaves out of your hair. You're starting to look like the king of Gondor." Frodo followed his mother, slightly confused. Perhaps he should have begun to prepare when Elanor told him to.

******

Queen Arwen paced around her room, giving an occasional worried glance at the door. She should never have entrusted Eldarion to her brothers. Not that he wasn't _safe_, but if he wasn't back soon, it would be too late to properly prepare him for the feast. For that matter, where was her husband? No doubt he would run in at the last moment, covered in dirt and sweat, completely unaware of the state of his clothes. Arwen sighed. There were disadvantages to marrying someone who had spent much of his life in the in the wilderness. It was easy to forget that he had been raised among elves when he came back from one of his adventures-

A knock sounded on the door. Arwen rushed over and tore the door open. Elladan and Elrohir were carrying her missing son.

Elrohir gave a deep bow. "We apologize for the delay in the delivery of your son, Lady Arwen," he explained gravely, "but it appears your King needs to sharpen his hunting skills, for he did not discover us until a few moments ago."

Arwen sighed and snatched Eldarion from her brother's arms. Eldarion grinned and made a grab at her necklace. Its shiny jewels glinted temptingly at him. Arwen caught his hand before it reached the treasure it sought as she headed toward the nursery. The twins followed her, continuing to list the various skills the king seemed to have lost somewhere between the last time they had come and now.

"…and he needs to learn how to run faster again. Years of living is such a restricted environment seems to have slowed him down," Elladan continued from his previous rant.

"I completely agree. And did you notice how he slipped during the mock battles in the courtyard yesterday?" Elrohir added.

"Disgraceful! And how he…."

Arwen rolled her eyes as she pulled Eldarion's clothes off him and dropped them on a chair. The fact that the ground had been wet and muddy from one of the stable boys' use of a water bucket didn't seem to concern them. She dropped Eldarion into a tub that had been waiting for him for quite a while, but as water temperature rarely seemed to concern him, the lukewarm bath hardly seemed to matter.

"Don't you have a feast to prepare for?" she snapped at her brothers as she rolled up her sleeves to clean Eldarion.

Elladan stopped midway through his rant and seemed to ponder her suggestion. "Yes, perhaps we should show that some sons of Elrond are capable of presenting themselves properly," he concluded, and he and Elrohir swept out of the room.

Arwen sighed again as she began to vigorously scrub her son. Sometimes she wondered how Aragorn had come out the way he was, being raised by her older brothers. Eldarion looked up at her through wide eyes, for once not splashing and playing as he was apt to. He seemed to recognize that his mother was not presently in the mood to deal with him, and he seemed to finally show some of that quiet patience that elven children naturally displayed.

Just as she pulled Eldarion out of the quickest bath he had ever taken, her husband burst into her room.

"Where are Elladan and Elrohir?" he demanded, seemingly unaware of the present state of his clothes and hair.

"In their rooms, preparing for the feast. Something you should have been doing long ago." Arwen answered, wiping the water off Eldarion with a towel.

Aragorn blinked, then his eyes widened. He turned and raced toward the bathing-room. After a few moments Arwen could hear him tearing off his clothes and then sliding into the bath. Then she heard the yelp of a man who has just discovered that his bath has been waiting for him for far too long.

Arwen smiled and dressed Eldarion. She emerged from the nursery to see her husband with a towel wrapped around his waist, squeezing water from his hair. No doubt that had been one of the quickest baths he had ever taken as well.

"That was cold," he said accusingly as Arwen set Eldarion on their bed and headed toward the wardrobe to find some clothes for her husband to don. Aragorn could rarely be trusted to pick clothes that complimented hers, which was necessary when they sat next to each other in public, as they would at the feast. "You could have at least warned me," her disgruntled husband continued as he grabbed another towel and began to dry the rest of himself.

"That would spoil the enjoyment of hearing the king of Gondor shrieking like a barmaid," Arwen replied serenely, showing an amazing likeness to her maternal grandmother.

"Sometimes you remind me too much of Elladan and Elrohir," Aragorn muttered as he pulled his pants from her hands and put them on. Eldarion watched this all with wide eyes and one thumb firmly fixed into his mouth.

Arwen picked her son and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Aragorn demanded as he pulled on his tunic.

"I have a feast to attend," Arwen answered. "I would advise you to do the same as soon as possible." Then she walked out and firmly pulled the door closed behind her.

Aragorn looked at the door and sighed. His entire family seemed to be abandoning him today. He walked over to the dresser and grabbed his brush. Might as well arrive before his subjects appearing as though he'd had _some_ preparation for this feast.

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A/N: Rosie can't tell the difference between Elladan and Elrohir. In fact, many people can't tell the difference between the twins. It may cause some confusion later on. And I am once again teasing Aragorn about his hair. Poor Aragorn. Wandering around with the Dunedain didn't give him the best training in appearances. No one cares about how you look when you're slaughtering orcs. 


	3. In Which the Feast is Finally Eaten

Chapter Three: In Which the Feast is Finally Eaten 

Disclaimer: These character's and places are all property of Tolkien Estates, Tolkien Enterprises, and New Line Cinema. Not me. So there.

A/N: Just a small side comment, this particular feast is a rather small occasion, merely celebrating the fact that the King of Gondor has old friends visiting. It's nothing particularly huge and spectacular. Elladan and Elrohir are here because they escorted Sam and Co. to Gondor, so they aren't just randomly in the story because I want them to be (even though that's a perfectly good reason as far as I'm concerned ).

"Where is the royal family?" Éowyn asked under her breath as she sidled up next to Faramir, a fake smile plastered on her face for the benefit of the guests.

"I do not know." Faramir muttered back, beaming equally insincerely at all the people milling around the room, chatting and wondering where the King, Queen and Heir were presently. 

The hobbits had arrived a few moments ago, Elanor joining a few of the handmaidens who were waiting for their Queen to arrive, while Sam had immediately found the one lord who controlled the lands that supplied more then half of the produce for the main cities of Gondor. Rosie seemed to be happily berating her son, who had the appearance of one whose face had been scrubbed slightly too hard in an effort to make it clean.

"They had best arrive soon," Éowyn said, giving a cordial nod to one of the lords whose lands bordered Rohan.

"I know," Faramir answered. Then his eyes flickered over to the main doors, where Queen Arwen had just entered, bearing her son. 

"That's two of them," Elrohir said coming up from behind them. Éowyn and Faramir spun around to face him. "Unfortunately," Elrohir continued, "arriving on time to important feasts was one thing Aragorn was never properly taught, as you may have noticed from earlier occasions."

"Yes," Faramir answered dryly. "It would appear so."

Arwen approached them, a smug smile on her face which reminded Éowyn that Elladan and Elrohir were the Queen's older brothers. "My husband will be here shortly," she said calmly. "He needed to tend to a few last things concerning his appearance."

Éowyn bit her lip to keep from making a comment concerning past events where the King had not been so careful about how he looked. Elrohir grinned, reading the expression on her face. "At least this time he decided that if he arrived late, he would do it presentably," Elrohir remarked, voicing what Éowyn had hesitated to mention.

Arwen opened her mouth as if to defend her husband, then decided it was a hopeless cause. She changed the subject instead. "Where is my other brother?"

"Talking with Imrahil about a certain book in the library. I believe Imrahil is trying to convince him to lend it until it can be copied," Elrohir answered, "Of course, Elladan is fully aware that if he lends it, it is doubtful that he will ever have it back…"

"Why not? Imrahil is a man of his word. If he says that he will return it, no doubt he will," Faramir protested, visibly puzzled.

"No, it is that Elladan knows that the library will eventually have to be emptied, and he is loth to start the process," Elrohir explained, echoing Glorfindel's exact words on the matter.

Before Faramir could nod in understanding, Eldarion, who had been sitting calmly watching these proceedings, decided that it was _his_ turn for attention. He immediately set up a howl that made Éowyn glad that she had left her children in Ithilien under the care of a nurse and a few other energetic volunteers. 

"Hungry!" He shrieked, and when his mother tried to placate him with a promise of food soon, it changed to, "Hungry now!" then he went on to a few words in Elvish, excluding most of the room from what exactly he said, but he yelled it loud enough so that all could hear him.

That was the moment the King of Gondor chose to enter the room.

***********

"…and then Rose fell into the pond, pulling poor Goldilocks in after her. Hamfast ran to get some rope, and he, Merry and Pippin managed to pull them out before they came to harm. And that's how I found them, the lads lying in the grass exhausted and Rosie and Goldilocks dripping on Daisy, as she tried to explain as to how she didn't mean any harm."

All the handmaidens laughed at the image of Daisy, who had only been a tiny little thing then, being terrified by her bedraggled older sisters for something that was hardly her fault.

"Of course," Elanor concluded, "when we found out the whole story, Merry and Pippin where punished, having to skip second breakfast and elevenses for nearly two weeks. The hungry lads kept pilfering from the back garden when they believed Father otherwise occupied."

"Oh Elanor, it must be such fun to have so many siblings! Daineth and I hardly had any fun together when we were younger." One of the handmaidens exclaimed wistfully.

Elanor shook her head. "It can be enjoyable, but it is often a burden to have so many small children running about."

A few of the handmaidens exclaimed how that could not be, and how they wished all of Elanor's siblings had come, instead of merely Frodo. Elanor grinned and proceeded to explain what a journey would be like with twelve hobbit-children coming along. All the handmaidens laughed. While Rosie and Elanor had tried to make some effort to eat slightly less and appear more ladylike, both Sam and Frodo had eaten without restraint, clearly showing Gondor how much a hungry hobbit could consume when the mood struck him!

"But Elanor," one of them protested, "surely you could have-"

But before the handmaiden could have presented her arguments for how a large family of hobbits could be housed and fed in Gondor without eating through the larder, a large shriek was heard from the other end of the room. The young prince was seen, informing all within a three-room vicinity that the heir to the throne was hungry, and he wanted food now! All the handmaidens rushed toward their queen.

"Perhaps he has spent too much time in the company of these ever-eating hobbits," someone remarked to Elanor, her face lost in the crowd. As Elanor opened her mouth to laugh at the jest, the king of Gondor strode into the room.

The handmaidens hurriedly stopped their mad dash to the queen, and the room fell silent. The only sound was the young prince, who, upon sighting his father changed his exclamation from "hungry!" to "Ada!" which Elanor had gathered, was the elvish term for Father.

King Elessar strode over to his son, and lifted him out of the Queen's arms. The little boy threw his arms around his father's neck, and, while looking at him adoringly, informed his father that he was hungry.

"Then we must get you some food!" the King exclaimed, mock surprise filling his voice, as if he hadn't heard his son shrieking from three rooms distance.

Aragorn nodded to Faramir, who discreetly signaled the servants to open the doors to the dining hall. As the guests began to spill into the second room, Arwen's handmaiden gathered themselves around the queen and walked in with her. The King was flanked by his brothers, the steward, and Lady Éowyn. 

The guests assembled themselves around the table, and began chatting with their seat-neighbors, all of then waiting for the King to sit before taking their own seats. As soon as all of them were seated, they began to quiet, noticing that the food was not being served. As soon as there was (nearly) complete silence, Aragorn stood, waving the guest who immediately began to rise after him. "I would like to acknowledge and greet Samwise Gamgee, one of the Nine Walkers, his wife, and his eldest two children," the king announced, nodding toward the three hobbits sitting near him.

Sam and Rosie promptly stood up, pulling Frodo up with them. Elanor also rose from her seat among the handmaidens, blushing pink with the attention suddenly focused in her direction, although her shade could not compare to her mother's deep red. Sam looked slightly flustered at the amount of respect radiating toward him, but Elanor noted with a sigh that Frodo was already hungrily eyeing the food the servants were serving. It must be hard on him, being a young growing hobbit in a city which only ate three meals a day (or whatever you could pilfer from the kitchen-which turned out to be quite a lot when you were the King's honored guest) but he needn't make a spectacle of himself at every meal! 

***********

Elrohir took a sip from his glass, savoring the wine for a moment before swallowing. For a relatively small and unimportant feast, Aragorn had certainly prepared a fine meal. Or rather, _Arwen_ had _arranged_ a fine meal. Elrohir doubted that Aragorn had more to do with the food then perhaps sneaking into the kitchens to snatch a quick taste. Unless he had finally managed to grow out of that particular habit.

Although it was still odd to think of Arwen as queen of any realm. Especially any mortal realm. But she had put out this feast for the benefit of four particular guests, even though two of them were showing signs of visible restraint in an effort to appear more highborn. Sam and Frodo appeared to be making up for them quite well. Elrohir watched as Frodo snatched a piece of meat his mother had been eyeing for the last five minutes, and finished it in a matter of moments, then went back for more. Sam seemed to be able to put away quite large amounts of food while at the same time arguing happily with the lord next the him about the best way to grow large amounts of carrots. And Elanor was trying to distract herself from the food by talking forcefully with the other handmaiden's.

"Well, I think the seating arrangements worked out quite well," Elladan remarked.

Elrohir nodded, noticing that nobody seemed to be in any serious arguments. "I suppose they have learned from past mistakes," he replied, remembering a certain incident involving a cow, a field of corn, two missing prize studs and six different lords. "But who is the lady sitting next to Rosie?" he asked, trying to figure out who it was, as Rosie seemed to quite enjoy conversation with her, none of which Elrohir had quite been able to catch.

"Lady Sreiya," Elladan answered, "a good choice. They both have had more then ten children, I believe. I'm sure they found many things to complain to each other about."

Elrohir caught his brother's eyes and grinned. Rosie had spent much of the journey relishing the experience of being able to breath without having to cater to the needs of twelve different children. She also had expressed sympathy for her family, her family-by-marriage, Meriadoc and Peregrin, all of whom volunteered to watch the other children until Sam and Rosie returned. According to her "they had no idea what they said they'd do, and I wasn't in the mind to tell them!".

"How are you enjoying the meal?" Arwen queried, sitting in the abandoned seat next to Elladan, holding Eldarion on her lap. 

"Absolutely delicious, O sister dearest. The taste of the stewed quail complemented the taste of the fried leg of lamb impeccably," Elrohir said with a perfectly serious face, "and the vintage wine went splendidly with the broiled chicken and sauce of-" Arwen threw a napkin at him, which he caught expertly in the air, folded and placed on the table. Then he grinned at his sister. Elladan laughed.

"I am sure the hobbits enjoyed it" Elladan said, answering the question that Arwen had _meant_, even if she had not _said_, "and none of your subjects would dare insult a meal prepared by you, even if you had burnt half and left the rest raw."

Arwen smiled, "Well, I haven't prepared quite that terrible a meal."

Elrohir leaned forward, "Arwen, 'tis only food. Rosie and Elanor have not allowed themselves to eat enough to taste, and Sam and Frodo have eaten so much I doubt they could recall good from bad. And this is supposed to be a happy occasion. Enjoy yourself!"

"We'll take Eldarion," said Elladan, lifting his nephew from his sister's hands. As Arwen started to protest and take her son back, Elrohir stood up, came around his brother's chair and pulled his sister to her feet.

"You know, there was something Rosie wanted to tell you about Eldarion," He said thoughtfully leading his sister to her husband.

"What?" she demanded, maternal instincts alert, trying to discover some secret plot against her son to save him from.

"I believe she said something about how Eldarion seemed a bit young for such a late party, and something about how men can't be trusted in the care of small children" Elrohir said, "or perhaps something about surprised she was that Eldarion rarely gets entrusted to his mother's brothers and how she can't understand how such trustworthy elves as us seem to be suspected of trying to run off with the prince."

"And nearly managed to do it," Arwen said, as they approached her husband's seat.

"We were only going to take him out for a ride." Elrohir protested, "We hardly had the gear to travel back to Rivendell with him."

Arwen was coming up with an answer for that comment that she could say in front of her subjects without destroying their respect for her, when they reached her husband, who stood to greet his wife from her brief journey down the table.

"Shame, Estel" Elrohir admonished his brother. "Your wife was so bored she had to resort to going to her brother's to find some entertainment."

Aragorn blinked, then comprehension filled his eyes. He grinned, "Music?"

"Something more exciting then a listing of the kings of old would be perfect."

"That will not be too difficult." Aragorn said with a smile as he turned and clapped for some of the minstrels to come forward and perform.

Elrohir seated his protesting sister with a practiced ease, then returned to his seat to listen to some good music (he and Elladan had given Estel his taste in music, it was guaranteed to be good) and play with his nephew until enough people either passed out from too much wine or wisely left for bed that Aragorn declared the feast to be over. Yes, Elrohir thought as he sat down and lifted Eldarion from his brother, as feasts go, this was certainly not a bad one.

A/N: The wonderful feast that I spent 2 ½ chapter's building up to was over in a few pages. Oh well. After this I have to speed up the story a bit or one year in Gondor for Sam will take eons of writing for me!


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